Immigrants Have Better Luck Finding Jobs in Moncton Than in Other Cities

A immigrant and international student job fair at the the Empress Theatre in Moncton.
Image: Submitted.

One of the mantras I have been preaching for years now is the need to attract immigrants into actual employment opportunities.

I realize this is not as simple as it seems given the sometimes strange world of immigration where prospective immigrants with lots of points can get in and ones that have the skills for certain jobs cannot.

The good news is that despite the fairly significant increase in immigration to the Moncton CMA, a high level of these immigrants are participating in the labour market.

The following table shows the labour market participation rate for urban centres with at least an immigrant population of 5,000. Among all urban centres east of Winnipeg, Moncton ranks second for immigrant labour market participation.

Fredericton has a participation rate of 50.9 per cent and Saint John 49.6 per cent.Obviously, we have to be careful with this data as we have no way of knowing how many of the Syrian refugees are showing up in these numbers (not likely many given the timing of the Census). Also, in certain areas, the immigrant population might be older and there are more retirees in the mix.

But for the most part, this is a good news story for Moncton. The more alignment between the inward migrants and actual labour market participation the better.

David Campbell writes a blog about economic development in Atlantic Canada called It’s The Economy, Stupid. This post was republished with permission. Campbell also operates Jupia Consultants, a consulting company that conducts demographic and economic analysis.

Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle.